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Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 13:11 - Aug 21 by Mo_Wives
You speak as though there are not young men watching, as Evergreen campus stands by, as white students are told to stay home for the day because they have the wrong colour skin. THIS IS ACTUAL RACISM, LISA.
You speak as though white kids are not seeing politically correct, left wing publications pump out shite about "only white people can be racist".
You should never underestimate your opponent, Lisa. Don't dismiss them and their ideas as self refuting. Especially when your stance is "shall we debate them?...No. lets cheer as we kick the shit out of them in the street". Don't assume you are more intelligent than your opponent, Lisa. Always prepare to face the best.
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," (Romans 1:22)
The students of Evrgreen, who are quite obviously ridiculous, have for years and years had a day where black students have stayed off campus to make a point. One year, they decided that it would be white students who stayed off campus.
It's idiotic, gesture politics, both ways.
0
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:46 - Aug 21 with 1957 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 13:15 - Aug 21 by dailew
So you have no time for White Supremacy but have time for the adherents?
(Even though you'd lead the cheering if someone smacked them over the head with a plank,)
I also have no time for the adherents of the Islamic equivalent. I have made that apparent on many, many occasions. I am more than happy to see them shot let alone smacked over the head with a plank.
Moslems are not the equivalent of white supremacists.
Again, it's really not that difficult.
0
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:47 - Aug 21 with 1957 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:04 - Aug 21 by exiledclaseboy
I've been wondering how many actual individuals are arguing on this thread. You remember Multiple Miggs from Silence of the Lambs? Could we be witnessing Multiple Mo?
Oh, look...it's the Alpha-Female of Planet Swans.
How many times exactly have you squirmed away (beaten) from this thread now?
You always come back though, don't you. You just can't leave it be can you :) ...and how many years of your life have you wasted trying to bully new posters on this site?
Get a life my friend.
-1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 16:02 - Aug 21 with 1895 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 13:28 - Aug 21 by E20Jack
I have experienced far more racial slurs and prejudice in the company of black and asian people than I ever have being around caucasian. Without question. I have also heard more sexism from women.
With the Asian slurs it tends to be more cultural. Muslims (obviously not all) tend to not like jewish people from my experience, most who I know tend to dislike the jewish communities we have here. I also knew a race relations officer a few years back (Muslim) who was outraged that he thought his daughter was seeing a black man and said if it was true she would be disowned. The race relations officer of a major UK city this was. I was stunned. The thing is they are all lovely people, but their views are incredibly different to what most would think of as the accepted norm.
As for sexism, I am always apalled by the amount that say they are all for equality and then say things like they expect a man to pay for their dinner or he wouldnt get a second date, or use the phrase "ladies first" or "he should never speak to a woman like that". It is a running joke in the office that I have never bought a woman a drink, I am amazed it isn't seen as normal. Luckily my wife shares my thoughts and I was indeed allowed a second date.
I watched a programme the other day too about attitudes towards violence amongst the sexes. There was a couple (actors) in a park and they would be signalled to start a domestic as someone was walking past. Alternating who was the agressor and judging the reactions of the passers by.
When the man was shouting at the women both sexes came across to intervene, shouting at the man. When the woman did it it was met with smiles and laughter, the woman even slapped the man (who was silent and unthreatening) forcefully across the face and a woman walking past did a clear first pump and mouthed "yeeeah!". Can you imagine if a man slapped a woman with exactly the same force and a man walked past celebrating it. There would be uproar. Quite rightly.
Being a minority certainly should not make you immune from being brought to task on showing the same levels of prejudice that many of them object so loudly against.
[Post edited 21 Aug 2017 13:41]
Great post E20s
Good luck, Mr Cooper
0
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 16:04 - Aug 21 with 1893 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:04 - Aug 21 by exiledclaseboy
I've been wondering how many actual individuals are arguing on this thread. You remember Multiple Miggs from Silence of the Lambs? Could we be witnessing Multiple Mo?
Let me ask you, if they were all me...what would it matter?
Why don't you tackle the arguments instead of the posters?
Good luck, Mr Cooper
1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 16:09 - Aug 21 with 1886 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:42 - Aug 21 by londonlisa2001
The students of Evrgreen, who are quite obviously ridiculous, have for years and years had a day where black students have stayed off campus to make a point. One year, they decided that it would be white students who stayed off campus.
It's idiotic, gesture politics, both ways.
No. Evergreen students (non-white) had always decided to stay home for a day...their choice. Fine. Then they (white and non white sjw types) decided to tell other students they had to stay home because they had white skin. If black students had been told this you would be going nuclear. When people complained, these f*cking racist scumbags took over the campus and patrolled it with baseball bats.
Why don't you treat people equally regardless of skin colour?
[Post edited 21 Aug 2017 16:42]
Good luck, Mr Cooper
1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 16:19 - Aug 21 with 1872 views
I would like to add, thanks to the people who joined in on the last page. I was feeling drained fighting against these 'non racist', 'non violent adovocates'...I had to go away and have a little moment to myself. (not a w*nk)
I then came back...like Rick in the Walking Dead, to see how many zombies were at me gate. And there were heroes...yes, heroes smashing skulls. Brought a tear to my eye, it did. Right, have to go for a moment to myself (a w*nk)
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 16:09 - Aug 21 by Mo_Wives
No. Evergreen students (non-white) had always decided to stay home for a day...their choice. Fine. Then they (white and non white sjw types) decided to tell other students they had to stay home because they had white skin. If black students had been told this you would be going nuclear. When people complained, these f*cking racist scumbags took over the campus and patrolled it with baseball bats.
Why don't you treat people equally regardless of skin colour?
[Post edited 21 Aug 2017 16:42]
The protests you are talking about happened 2 months after the day of absence or whatever stupid name it was given (the day wasn't mandatory apparently, although there's a reasonable argument to say that in effect it was) as a result of a whole list of nonsense surrounding two particular lecturers. I read a long article about it all a few weeks ago. It seems that the whole college is driven by gesture politics and lacks any sort of leadership to sort the idiots out.
I do hate racism on all sides, black against white as well as white against black. The difference tends to be, however, that racism from black people towards white people is at an individual or small group or community level, whereas racism the other way has that element but has been far more ingrained into the very fabric of society and society's institutions and constructs. That is why it is not directly comparable.
A black person hating a white person because they are white is exactly the same as a white person hating a black person because they are black. Both are equally abhorrent and should be equally called out. It is not the same however, as a black person being owned by a white person, or being unable to vote, use educational institutions, get jobs, use transport, own property, be shot by police for no reason, be executed for crimes that a white person wouldnt be, or even be lynched without the law taking action. For you to equate the actions of a small number of stupid students (both black and white by the way), with actual laws that prevented black kids getting a proper education for years is ridiculous in my view.
1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 17:22 - Aug 21 with 1826 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:46 - Aug 21 by londonlisa2001
I also have no time for the adherents of the Islamic equivalent. I have made that apparent on many, many occasions. I am more than happy to see them shot let alone smacked over the head with a plank.
Moslems are not the equivalent of white supremacists.
Again, it's really not that difficult.
Most Muslims think themselves superior to non-muslims, have a derogatory word for them.
It's really not that difficult </patronise>
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 17:09 - Aug 21 by londonlisa2001
The protests you are talking about happened 2 months after the day of absence or whatever stupid name it was given (the day wasn't mandatory apparently, although there's a reasonable argument to say that in effect it was) as a result of a whole list of nonsense surrounding two particular lecturers. I read a long article about it all a few weeks ago. It seems that the whole college is driven by gesture politics and lacks any sort of leadership to sort the idiots out.
I do hate racism on all sides, black against white as well as white against black. The difference tends to be, however, that racism from black people towards white people is at an individual or small group or community level, whereas racism the other way has that element but has been far more ingrained into the very fabric of society and society's institutions and constructs. That is why it is not directly comparable.
A black person hating a white person because they are white is exactly the same as a white person hating a black person because they are black. Both are equally abhorrent and should be equally called out. It is not the same however, as a black person being owned by a white person, or being unable to vote, use educational institutions, get jobs, use transport, own property, be shot by police for no reason, be executed for crimes that a white person wouldnt be, or even be lynched without the law taking action. For you to equate the actions of a small number of stupid students (both black and white by the way), with actual laws that prevented black kids getting a proper education for years is ridiculous in my view.
Stop treating people by their skin colour. I find it highly offensive and I know you like to defend everyone else from being offended. Please start treating people as individuals...
And BTW, when you say "I read a long article...", I'm guessing you read a left wing propaganda piece. Why don't you now go and read a right wing propaganda piece, then go and watch pro and against footage. Because I already have.
Good luck, Mr Cooper
1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 18:15 - Aug 21 with 1774 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 18:11 - Aug 21 by Mo_Wives
Stop treating people by their skin colour. I find it highly offensive and I know you like to defend everyone else from being offended. Please start treating people as individuals...
And BTW, when you say "I read a long article...", I'm guessing you read a left wing propaganda piece. Why don't you now go and read a right wing propaganda piece, then go and watch pro and against footage. Because I already have.
As I said earlier, the issue with debating this rationally is that anything that doesn't give positive reinforcement is dismissed as fake news.
Whatever. You carry on.
0
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 02:46 - Aug 22 with 1635 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 19:57 - Aug 21 by londonlisa2001
As I said earlier, the issue with debating this rationally is that anything that doesn't give positive reinforcement is dismissed as fake news.
Whatever. You carry on.
Yes. That's why I avoided giving you Breitbart links.
And haven't you realised yet, Lisa, it's all fake news. But if you compare both sides of the fake news, the things the lying buggers agree on are probably the truth. You can then go to Youtube and find peoples mobile phone footage (this is the true 'free press') to use as an eye witness, only mugs read an article and assume they know the truth . 'Fake news' is a truth.
Good luck, Mr Cooper
-1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 06:47 - Aug 22 with 1610 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 06:38 - Aug 22 by Mo_Wives
Yes. That's why I avoided giving you Breitbart links.
And haven't you realised yet, Lisa, it's all fake news. But if you compare both sides of the fake news, the things the lying buggers agree on are probably the truth. You can then go to Youtube and find peoples mobile phone footage (this is the true 'free press') to use as an eye witness, only mugs read an article and assume they know the truth . 'Fake news' is a truth.
Crikey.
Look out everyone. Tony the Tiger is back. And this time he's serious.
He's been learning about how the world works. By watching Youtube.
Go for it Tony.
[Post edited 22 Aug 2017 8:12]
0
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 08:41 - Aug 22 with 1568 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 08:10 - Aug 22 by Humpty
Crikey.
Look out everyone. Tony the Tiger is back. And this time he's serious.
He's been learning about how the world works. By watching Youtube.
Go for it Tony.
[Post edited 22 Aug 2017 8:12]
Nope. By reading the same sh1t as you and Lisa...also the sh1t you and Lisa have been scared away from and consider fake news....and then going to find various videos of the events, filmed by eye witnesses, just like the 'journalists' you get your 'news' from (you can see this, by looking at the relplies to these videos on twitter, where 'journalists' from the guardian, huff po etc. all ask "can we use your video?...we will give you full credit). And once again, tell him Maggie...
Edit - Poor old Scarecrow thinks you just put me to bed again.
[Post edited 22 Aug 2017 8:45]
Good luck, Mr Cooper
-1
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 08:51 - Aug 22 with 1560 views
Wow, Mo, no wonder you are so full of smug and near constant self-congratulation.
You are able to view all sides to the story and your unique insight then allows you to synthesise the truth, which by pure coincidence invariably coincides with the editorial position of Breitbart, Fox & Friends, etc.
You are the essence of Fair And Balanced news reporting; a veritable Mr FAB!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How I Became Fake News; I witnessed a terrorist attack in Charlottesville. Then the conspiracy theories began.
By BRENNAN GILMORE, Politico, August 21, 2017
Last Sunday evening, I received a worried call from my sister asking if I had spoken with my mother and father. I had spent the day doing interviews about the vehicle attack I witnessed the day before while protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and had not been in front of a computer all day. She told me that my parents’ home address had been posted on a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist message board.
“They are suggesting that you arranged the attack, Brennan,” she said. “There are death threats against you.”
On Saturday morning, I witnessed James Fields smash his car into a crowd of demonstrators, killing Heather Heyer and wounding 19 others. Although I immediately shared the footage with police on the scene, it took me a half-hour to decide to post it publicly. I was concerned about how the footage might be used by the "alt-right" and felt uncomfortable knowing that I had probably filmed someone’s death. I did not want the attention posting the video was likely to bring. I consulted with friends and family, some of whom were also at the counterprotest and some of whom were watching the coverage from outside Charlottesville. They all urged me to share the video, and when I heard from friends that some media outlets were suggesting that it might have been an accident or that the driver might have been attempting to escape an angry mob, I knew I had to post it. The video I took–and the scene I witnessed with my own two eyes–clearly showed the attack was intentional. Fields drove down two empty blocks and plowed straight into the crowd before fleeing in reverse.
So I tweeted it out:
Within the next 24 hours, nearly every major American news network and a variety of international press outlets asked to interview me about the attack. I was too shaken to sleep on Saturday night, but I spent all day Sunday conducting interviews. I tried to give a frank account of what I had seen on Fourth Street and respond clearly to questions about the situation more broadly. I said there was one side and one side alone responsible for the death I witnessed–the Nazis and white supremacists who brought their ideology of violence and hate to our town. It was their man who drove his vehicle into the crowd. I thought these points were straightforward and uncontroversial.
Boy was I wrong.
Hours after an interview I did with Alex Witt of MSNBC, neo-Nazi commentators started posting about me on 4chan, Reddit and YouTube. These crack researchers bragged that they had discovered I worked for the State Department (it’s in my Twitter bio), that I have a connection to George Soros (he very publicly donated to the campaign of my former boss, Tom Perriello), and that I spent time in Africa working in conflict areas (information available in major news outlets).
Desperate to lay blame on anyone besides the alt-right, they seized on these facts to suggest a counter-narrative to the attack, claiming there was no way that someone with my background just happened to be right there to take the video. Even ignoring the fact that someone with my background–raised in Virginia, UVA graduate, lives in Charlottesville, worked to resolve ethnic conflicts overseas, politically progressive–is exactly the kind of person you’d expect to find at a protest against Nazis, their theories were absurd and illogical. They wrote that I was a CIA operative, funded by (choose your own adventure) George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the IMF/World Bank, and/or a global Jewish mafia to orchestrate the Charlottesville attack in order to turn the general public against the alt-right. I had staged the attack and then worked with MSNBC and other outlets controlled by the left to spread propaganda. They claimed my ultimate goal was to start a race war that would undermine and then overthrow Donald Trump on behalf of the “Deep State.” (I’m generalizing here as the theories are widely variant and logically inconsistent, and I’m only aware of the small percentage I could be bothered to read.)
As these theories spread, I started receiving hate mail. Some people sent me fairly tame comments on social media like, “God has a special place for you Gilmore,” “you are a lying communist Nazi” and “fcuk you cuck.” Others threatened to kill me. One commenter posted that he’d like to torture me to see “the extent of my CIA training.” I was followed and accosted on the street in Charlottesville, and there have been many attempts to hack into my online accounts. One site posted all of my known addresses and family members, including the house I grew up in, where my parents still live.
Normally, I would have just ignored these threats and certainly would not have commented on them publicly. I consider it an honor to be attacked by people who have none, and I am willing to put up with personal risk to speak out against Nazis. I believe that it is incumbent on white people in particular to take the risks necessary to confront and restrain white supremacists, given the inherent and intentional risk they present to all communities of color.
My parents feel similarly and took having their address posted online by hate groups in stride. Within days a letter showed up in their mail, containing four pages of text explaining why I would burn in in hell, as well as a suspicious white powder. While the powder was a hoax, their local police department took all the threats seriously, confiscated the letter and stepped up patrols around the house. My parents’ sole precaution was to pick the remaining tomatoes from their garden, “so the Nazis wouldn’t get them.” Even in the South, there must be a limit to our hospitality.
However, these are not normal times, and a couple of things made me feel the need to speak out about these conspiracy theories and threats.
First, at some point during the week, it occurred to me that there was a pretty good chance these conspiracy theories had made their way to the White House. While they initially appeared only on obscure, wacko sites with pictures of bald eagles shooting machine guns, within 72 hours, they had gone “mainstream.” Infowars posted a “bombshell” investigation into Charlottesville that showed it was all a Soros plot, and I was the key operative. The president of the United States has been a guest on the very show that echoed theories suggesting I was, at best, an accessory to murder and, at worst, the orchestrator of the entire event, including hiring Nazi and antifa actors, staging a confrontation, and then working with allies in the mainstream “leftist” media to blind the world to the “reality.”
While some people in Facebook messages, tweets and comment boards were calling for my head, others were tweeting at various conservative leaders, including Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump and Sean Hannity, to open an investigation into my alleged role in the attack. On Thursday, Hannity broadcast claims on his radio show that the protesters in Charlottesville were paid. Although I wasn’t mentioned by name, there’s a clear connection between the conspiracy theories circulating about me orchestrating the attack and this segment, which aired on a show listened to by millions. Several days later, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a sitting U.S. congressman, called for a federal investigation of Charlottesville, alleging that protests were paid for and arranged “by forces of evil beyond what normal people can think about,” as part of a democratic agenda to make the 2018 midterm elections about race. Within less than a week the conspiracy theory had gone from an alt-right message board to millions across the country on broadcast television and radio and was being parroted by a national politician.
Trump has parroted Infowars several times, something even Infowars founder Alex Jones has described as “surreal.” Hannity dined with Trump a few weeks ago. Did I actually have to worry that the president of the United States might launch an investigation against me because I happened to capture footage of a white supremacist terror attack and spoke publicly about what I saw? I realized I couldn’t rule it out, and that frankly scares the hell out of me–for my family, but particularly for our country.
Over the past week, I’ve seen personally the very real damage that these conspiracy theories have on our public discourse. The danger is not necessarily that a large number of people will believe them in their entirety. Instead, it’s that they muddy the waters on issues that should be about right and wrong. This is truly dangerous. If we are to get beyond this current acute manifestation of the cancer of American racism and begin to heal, the right must join with the left to excise the malignancy of white supremacy from our politics and society. Conspiratorial thinking and confusion on what is real make this much harder.
When he heard about the nature of the threats I had received, one law enforcement officer said, “Well, there are two sides to every story.” Coming from rural Virginia, where Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are buried and where Trump received a healthy majority of the vote, perhaps I should not have been taken aback, but I admit I was.
I love the area where I grew up, and I love the people who live there, including many of my closest friends who are extremely conservative, with whom I grew up hunting, fishing and playing bluegrass. But in this story, there are not two sides.
I know what I saw on Saturday, and I know which side was responsible. I saw a man who identified himself as a Nazi purposefully drive his car into a group of protesters. White supremacist and Nazi ideology is inherently violent. They would deny nonwhite Americans their rights by any means possible and have historically used violence and intimidation to achieve their goal. The groups that marched in Charlottesville on Saturday were heavily armed and, according to their own words, they came prepared and, at least in some cases, hoped for violence.
By introducing doubt about what happened, even if their theories conflict with one another, these sites make it easier to argue that the Unite the Right rally was not just about white supremacy. In fact, we heard the president say that there were good people who were just there to defend Southern history and culture and peacefully protest removing the Robert E. Lee statue. Just as his equivocation and failure to condemn the alt-right enables and helps grow their twisted movement, the president’s warm embrace of conspiracy theories, rejection of journalistic standards, and propagation of noncredible sources of information embolden and grow the numbers of Americans looking for another explanation besides the uncomfortable truth.
Sometimes the story is not complicated: Nazis are bad, and I just happened to witness one of them commit a terrorist attack. I didn’t want the attention that came with having seen this horrific act, but I will continue to join the millions of Americans speaking out about its undeniable cause.
We need to stop reading and believing imaginary plots. And we all need to continue to speak out and act, both against white supremacy and the culture of conspiracy that has taken root in our country.
Brennan Gilmore, a native of Lexington, Virginia, formerly served as chief of staff to Tom Perriello, candidate for Virginia governor. Before that, he served for 15 years in the U.S. Foreign Service at postings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Tunisia and Sierra Leone. Brennan lives in Charlottesville, where he works in rural workforce development to bring IT jobs to underserved communities in rural Virginia.
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 14:32 - Aug 22 by Shaky
Wow, Mo, no wonder you are so full of smug and near constant self-congratulation.
You are able to view all sides to the story and your unique insight then allows you to synthesise the truth, which by pure coincidence invariably coincides with the editorial position of Breitbart, Fox & Friends, etc.
You are the essence of Fair And Balanced news reporting; a veritable Mr FAB!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How I Became Fake News; I witnessed a terrorist attack in Charlottesville. Then the conspiracy theories began.
By BRENNAN GILMORE, Politico, August 21, 2017
Last Sunday evening, I received a worried call from my sister asking if I had spoken with my mother and father. I had spent the day doing interviews about the vehicle attack I witnessed the day before while protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and had not been in front of a computer all day. She told me that my parents’ home address had been posted on a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist message board.
“They are suggesting that you arranged the attack, Brennan,” she said. “There are death threats against you.”
On Saturday morning, I witnessed James Fields smash his car into a crowd of demonstrators, killing Heather Heyer and wounding 19 others. Although I immediately shared the footage with police on the scene, it took me a half-hour to decide to post it publicly. I was concerned about how the footage might be used by the "alt-right" and felt uncomfortable knowing that I had probably filmed someone’s death. I did not want the attention posting the video was likely to bring. I consulted with friends and family, some of whom were also at the counterprotest and some of whom were watching the coverage from outside Charlottesville. They all urged me to share the video, and when I heard from friends that some media outlets were suggesting that it might have been an accident or that the driver might have been attempting to escape an angry mob, I knew I had to post it. The video I took–and the scene I witnessed with my own two eyes–clearly showed the attack was intentional. Fields drove down two empty blocks and plowed straight into the crowd before fleeing in reverse.
So I tweeted it out:
Within the next 24 hours, nearly every major American news network and a variety of international press outlets asked to interview me about the attack. I was too shaken to sleep on Saturday night, but I spent all day Sunday conducting interviews. I tried to give a frank account of what I had seen on Fourth Street and respond clearly to questions about the situation more broadly. I said there was one side and one side alone responsible for the death I witnessed–the Nazis and white supremacists who brought their ideology of violence and hate to our town. It was their man who drove his vehicle into the crowd. I thought these points were straightforward and uncontroversial.
Boy was I wrong.
Hours after an interview I did with Alex Witt of MSNBC, neo-Nazi commentators started posting about me on 4chan, Reddit and YouTube. These crack researchers bragged that they had discovered I worked for the State Department (it’s in my Twitter bio), that I have a connection to George Soros (he very publicly donated to the campaign of my former boss, Tom Perriello), and that I spent time in Africa working in conflict areas (information available in major news outlets).
Desperate to lay blame on anyone besides the alt-right, they seized on these facts to suggest a counter-narrative to the attack, claiming there was no way that someone with my background just happened to be right there to take the video. Even ignoring the fact that someone with my background–raised in Virginia, UVA graduate, lives in Charlottesville, worked to resolve ethnic conflicts overseas, politically progressive–is exactly the kind of person you’d expect to find at a protest against Nazis, their theories were absurd and illogical. They wrote that I was a CIA operative, funded by (choose your own adventure) George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the IMF/World Bank, and/or a global Jewish mafia to orchestrate the Charlottesville attack in order to turn the general public against the alt-right. I had staged the attack and then worked with MSNBC and other outlets controlled by the left to spread propaganda. They claimed my ultimate goal was to start a race war that would undermine and then overthrow Donald Trump on behalf of the “Deep State.” (I’m generalizing here as the theories are widely variant and logically inconsistent, and I’m only aware of the small percentage I could be bothered to read.)
As these theories spread, I started receiving hate mail. Some people sent me fairly tame comments on social media like, “God has a special place for you Gilmore,” “you are a lying communist Nazi” and “fcuk you cuck.” Others threatened to kill me. One commenter posted that he’d like to torture me to see “the extent of my CIA training.” I was followed and accosted on the street in Charlottesville, and there have been many attempts to hack into my online accounts. One site posted all of my known addresses and family members, including the house I grew up in, where my parents still live.
Normally, I would have just ignored these threats and certainly would not have commented on them publicly. I consider it an honor to be attacked by people who have none, and I am willing to put up with personal risk to speak out against Nazis. I believe that it is incumbent on white people in particular to take the risks necessary to confront and restrain white supremacists, given the inherent and intentional risk they present to all communities of color.
My parents feel similarly and took having their address posted online by hate groups in stride. Within days a letter showed up in their mail, containing four pages of text explaining why I would burn in in hell, as well as a suspicious white powder. While the powder was a hoax, their local police department took all the threats seriously, confiscated the letter and stepped up patrols around the house. My parents’ sole precaution was to pick the remaining tomatoes from their garden, “so the Nazis wouldn’t get them.” Even in the South, there must be a limit to our hospitality.
However, these are not normal times, and a couple of things made me feel the need to speak out about these conspiracy theories and threats.
First, at some point during the week, it occurred to me that there was a pretty good chance these conspiracy theories had made their way to the White House. While they initially appeared only on obscure, wacko sites with pictures of bald eagles shooting machine guns, within 72 hours, they had gone “mainstream.” Infowars posted a “bombshell” investigation into Charlottesville that showed it was all a Soros plot, and I was the key operative. The president of the United States has been a guest on the very show that echoed theories suggesting I was, at best, an accessory to murder and, at worst, the orchestrator of the entire event, including hiring Nazi and antifa actors, staging a confrontation, and then working with allies in the mainstream “leftist” media to blind the world to the “reality.”
While some people in Facebook messages, tweets and comment boards were calling for my head, others were tweeting at various conservative leaders, including Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump and Sean Hannity, to open an investigation into my alleged role in the attack. On Thursday, Hannity broadcast claims on his radio show that the protesters in Charlottesville were paid. Although I wasn’t mentioned by name, there’s a clear connection between the conspiracy theories circulating about me orchestrating the attack and this segment, which aired on a show listened to by millions. Several days later, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a sitting U.S. congressman, called for a federal investigation of Charlottesville, alleging that protests were paid for and arranged “by forces of evil beyond what normal people can think about,” as part of a democratic agenda to make the 2018 midterm elections about race. Within less than a week the conspiracy theory had gone from an alt-right message board to millions across the country on broadcast television and radio and was being parroted by a national politician.
Trump has parroted Infowars several times, something even Infowars founder Alex Jones has described as “surreal.” Hannity dined with Trump a few weeks ago. Did I actually have to worry that the president of the United States might launch an investigation against me because I happened to capture footage of a white supremacist terror attack and spoke publicly about what I saw? I realized I couldn’t rule it out, and that frankly scares the hell out of me–for my family, but particularly for our country.
Over the past week, I’ve seen personally the very real damage that these conspiracy theories have on our public discourse. The danger is not necessarily that a large number of people will believe them in their entirety. Instead, it’s that they muddy the waters on issues that should be about right and wrong. This is truly dangerous. If we are to get beyond this current acute manifestation of the cancer of American racism and begin to heal, the right must join with the left to excise the malignancy of white supremacy from our politics and society. Conspiratorial thinking and confusion on what is real make this much harder.
When he heard about the nature of the threats I had received, one law enforcement officer said, “Well, there are two sides to every story.” Coming from rural Virginia, where Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are buried and where Trump received a healthy majority of the vote, perhaps I should not have been taken aback, but I admit I was.
I love the area where I grew up, and I love the people who live there, including many of my closest friends who are extremely conservative, with whom I grew up hunting, fishing and playing bluegrass. But in this story, there are not two sides.
I know what I saw on Saturday, and I know which side was responsible. I saw a man who identified himself as a Nazi purposefully drive his car into a group of protesters. White supremacist and Nazi ideology is inherently violent. They would deny nonwhite Americans their rights by any means possible and have historically used violence and intimidation to achieve their goal. The groups that marched in Charlottesville on Saturday were heavily armed and, according to their own words, they came prepared and, at least in some cases, hoped for violence.
By introducing doubt about what happened, even if their theories conflict with one another, these sites make it easier to argue that the Unite the Right rally was not just about white supremacy. In fact, we heard the president say that there were good people who were just there to defend Southern history and culture and peacefully protest removing the Robert E. Lee statue. Just as his equivocation and failure to condemn the alt-right enables and helps grow their twisted movement, the president’s warm embrace of conspiracy theories, rejection of journalistic standards, and propagation of noncredible sources of information embolden and grow the numbers of Americans looking for another explanation besides the uncomfortable truth.
Sometimes the story is not complicated: Nazis are bad, and I just happened to witness one of them commit a terrorist attack. I didn’t want the attention that came with having seen this horrific act, but I will continue to join the millions of Americans speaking out about its undeniable cause.
We need to stop reading and believing imaginary plots. And we all need to continue to speak out and act, both against white supremacy and the culture of conspiracy that has taken root in our country.
Brennan Gilmore, a native of Lexington, Virginia, formerly served as chief of staff to Tom Perriello, candidate for Virginia governor. Before that, he served for 15 years in the U.S. Foreign Service at postings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Tunisia and Sierra Leone. Brennan lives in Charlottesville, where he works in rural workforce development to bring IT jobs to underserved communities in rural Virginia.
Right, before I read through all that, can you tell me what it's suppose to prove. It appears to be about Charlottesville. Me and Lisa were talking about Evergreen College. She had read one article. I had read many and seen many videos from people directly involved in the event (like this Brennan Gilmore fella in your article). Who do you think would have the more balanced view...me or Lisa?. Like Mr Gilmore is saying the right wing is talking shit. On the Evergreen situation I have seen people say the left wing is talking shit.
If your point is that people lie to protect their narrative/side...Yes, that's my point. That is why I'm telling Lisa not to just read the side that she agrees with. BTW, are you of the opinion that the left wing doesn't lie?...please say you're not.
So what I think has happened here, correct me if I'm wrong, is I have said to Lisa that it's best to check all sources, left wing and right wing...because they both have a tendency to lie. Then you have provided an article on the subject of one of these sides lying...and you think that's an argument against my position? Or am I missing something?
[Post edited 22 Aug 2017 15:08]
Good luck, Mr Cooper
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Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 15:30 - Aug 22 with 1439 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 15:07 - Aug 22 by Mo_Wives
Right, before I read through all that, can you tell me what it's suppose to prove. It appears to be about Charlottesville. Me and Lisa were talking about Evergreen College. She had read one article. I had read many and seen many videos from people directly involved in the event (like this Brennan Gilmore fella in your article). Who do you think would have the more balanced view...me or Lisa?. Like Mr Gilmore is saying the right wing is talking shit. On the Evergreen situation I have seen people say the left wing is talking shit.
If your point is that people lie to protect their narrative/side...Yes, that's my point. That is why I'm telling Lisa not to just read the side that she agrees with. BTW, are you of the opinion that the left wing doesn't lie?...please say you're not.
So what I think has happened here, correct me if I'm wrong, is I have said to Lisa that it's best to check all sources, left wing and right wing...because they both have a tendency to lie. Then you have provided an article on the subject of one of these sides lying...and you think that's an argument against my position? Or am I missing something?
[Post edited 22 Aug 2017 15:08]
Firstly it's only you that have assumed I've only seen one article about it. I said I'd read a long article about the protests (despite your so called extensive research you were continuing to intimate that the trouble occurred on the day of absence which is factually incorrect).
I've seen quite a few articles about it.
Secondly you assumed that I'd only read a so called left wing propaganda piece (not true, although I imagine any piece published anywhere other than breitbart is left wing in your eyes).
Thirdly you get came up with the usual and tiresome you tube 'evidence' to support your position.
I pointed out that, as I'd previously said, debating stuff with people like you is a waste of time as you simply dismiss any contrary opinion as fake news. You did exactly what I forecast, at which point I stuck with my previous position of not debating with people like you as it's a waste of time.
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Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 15:33 - Aug 22 with 1434 views
Car hits crowd of anti-fascist protesters amid white-supremacist violence on 15:30 - Aug 22 by londonlisa2001
Firstly it's only you that have assumed I've only seen one article about it. I said I'd read a long article about the protests (despite your so called extensive research you were continuing to intimate that the trouble occurred on the day of absence which is factually incorrect).
I've seen quite a few articles about it.
Secondly you assumed that I'd only read a so called left wing propaganda piece (not true, although I imagine any piece published anywhere other than breitbart is left wing in your eyes).
Thirdly you get came up with the usual and tiresome you tube 'evidence' to support your position.
I pointed out that, as I'd previously said, debating stuff with people like you is a waste of time as you simply dismiss any contrary opinion as fake news. You did exactly what I forecast, at which point I stuck with my previous position of not debating with people like you as it's a waste of time.
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